The Only Mormon in the Family

[RooTheMormon]

I am the only LDS member in  my family, so to those of you who also are the only member- I know how hard it is. I was hoping we could all lend a helping hand to each other, as daughters and sons of our Heavenly Father. 

[Sunday21]

@RooTheMormon. Hi! I am also the only member in my family. Yes, it gets lonely! Try to make Heavenly Father your friend. Good luck!

[Jane_Doe]

Hi @RooTheMormon!  (Cool handle by the way)

Welcome to the forum!

[RooTheMormon]

Thank you @Jane_Doe and @Sunday21

[mirkwood]

It was just me and my mom until I got married.

[Iggy]

My oldest brother joined the church in 1960 when he was 16 & I was 8. A year later my two older sisters joined. I finally got baptized when I was 16. We always thought we were the only ones in the family (including cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grands, etc.).

In 1999 I went through a frenzy of a time trying to locate my cousins that I grew up with. In doing so I found letters Mom had written to her cousins. Since I could afford the cost of the paper, envelopes, and stamps I wrote to all of them too. There was one woman I couldn't figure out I was related to her. I wrote to her, giving her my phone number. She called me one morning. She is married to Mom's second cousin. From the information she sent me I hit the Mother Lode! One branch of the family were members of the Church! Granted they joined later in life, like my family, but, not because of any my family (siblings). Now, Mom's cousins that I knew about - they didn't join the church. They are all members of The Salvation Army, but, half of their children ARE members of the church.

They all sent me filled out copies of the family group sheet along with the address's of everyone on said sheet. I wrote, received emails back and also got detailed family history from over half of them. Ancestors (*Grands*) data showing that one one side of the tree, there was live endowments at SLC Temple.

So even though Mom's two brothers, their children (the cousins I grew up babysitting) and their grandchildren (whom I have never met) never joined the church. Her cousins (whom she did grow up with) one half of her tree had been members of the church.

Gotta love Family History!

Back in 2001 I was called as Family History Consultant in my branch. The Stake Family History Consultant came to my home, gave me a three ring binder filled with charts, forms, family history literature, PAF disc, downloaded PAF onto my computer, AND gave me a 15 Generation Family History Tree to fill out. Took me three years to fill it out. Thanks to all of my newly discovered Cousins, Aunts & Uncles - that chart is filled out to the 15th Grands. Daddy's side is pretty bare, but then I never learned to read or talk Norwegian. Took 8 years to get two letters translated from his Uncle in Norway that I found. But, in this Family History business, I am patient and I persevere.

So, to those who feel that they are the only ones in their families who belong to the church I say: Ok, you are in your immediate family, but have you done your Family History. Called your relatives, asked them to fill out family group sheets & added snail mail, email, phone #'s? Gone to reunions armed with a small tape recorder and talked with each of them and asked about the "Family Lore" stories?

On my Dad's side of the family, the women all gathered the first week of September, after all of their children were back in school and the husbands were left in charge. During this week long reunion, they learned about their ancestors, caught everyone up with births, marriages, divorces, etc. When I found out about this Women's Reunion, the eldest was the 80 year old twins. They were the last born to the eldest daughter of the youngest son (Daddy's Uncle). One of the twins has passed on a few years ago. Don't know if the other is still alive or not.

Oh, how I wish I had gone to that reunion when I first heard about it. I had the time, but I didn't want to ask my sister for the money for a bus ticket there & back. I also had access to blank Family Group sheets, had a PAF disc, had my GEDCOM file on a disc, AND had access to a small tape recorder and a dozen blank cartridges. Pride stood in my way. That was in 2003. Then life happened and now I could easily go, but I have lost contact with the family. Guess I could just show up in the town they always met in, take a chance they are still meeting together & there.

So, to end this long story:

The Moral of the story is: When you do your Family History and talk with your Kin, get address's & phone #'s. Then write & call. Be honest with them about your reason's. AND also be honest when you enter your data into Family Search. DON'T do proxy work until you actually have letters of permission. You just may be surprised to find some Ancestor's who are already members of the church.

Family History isn't just gathering up all the data on your deceased *Grands* aka Ancestors, verifying all the data, it is also reaching out to your living relatives. Hunting down the contact numbers for those you have never met & introducing yourself to them.

[Guest MormonGator]

I am as well. It's not really hard on me. One side I never spoke to anyway and the other side has been really supportive. So nothing really changed. 

[anatess2]

I'm the only Mormon in my family.  They're all majority Catholics with a smattering of protestants.  There's probably a closet atheist there somewhere but won't dare come out lest they get voted off the island...

I became Mormon after I married my Mormon husband.  He has a Mormon family - his mom is pioneer family, his dad's is a convert family.

I don't feel lonely.  My parents and siblings did not talk to me for years after I married a non-Catholic.   But I was focused on my husband and his family.  They eventually opened up their arms to me again after I got pregnant.  My Catholic mother still harasses me often - 20 years later - to come back to the fold and be saved.  I love her for caring about my salvation that much.

Edited July 6, 2017 by anatess2